Monday, February 15, 2010

An online friend turned me on to an artist who should be much more famous than he currently is. Australian born Ashley Wood seems to have a fondness for sci-fi warfare, giant robots, and the beauty of the female form- subjects that find their way into his paintings, art books, and comics. Two of his brainchildren- "World War Robot" & "Popbot" have also been picked up for development into motion pictures.

I have a feeling the name Ashley Wood will soon be as integral a part of geek pop-culture as Danny Elfman, Sam Raimi, & JJ Abrahms.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Some like-minded folks and I have developed the habit of posting on twitter as Star Wars characters. In effect, our interaction on twitter has developed into a sort of real-time RPG, with all comments limited to 140 characters.

Some of the more enterprising Star Wars twitterers have put together a blog to keep track of the goings-on of the characters. Here's a sample of what you might find there-

Hello Kitty Man-Panties of the Sith

A day before the enjoyably chaotic event that was @ariabrisard's Friday night costume party, there was a different, perhaps more troubling disturbance in the Force...

Anakin Skywalker, aka @Every1HatesAni, wears a public face of cool competence and unshakable confidence, a man of deep talents and even deeper thoughts. A complex, complicated soul who relishes pondering the more profound mysteries of the universe, as demonstrated by this excerpt from his secret diary:

" today I was awesome & my girlfriend was hot. Then Dooku was mean to me. I hate everyone!!!!!!!"

But despite his aura of intellectual prowess and iron-firm will, it appears that our Jedi Knight hero has a chink in his armor...

While on a brief sabbatical on Future Tatooine, the stalwart Jedi Master @MaceWindu_ made a startling discovery: @Every1HatesAni has a fetish for Hello Kitty. First-hand accounts vary, but one common, pastel-colored thread runs through all of their stories. All witness describe a sense of soul-crushing anguish and horror at viewing the evidence.

"It was like some awful collision of worlds," one witness claimed. "Like a peanut butter and sardine sandwich.. Hello Kitty and Star wars DO NOT KARKING MIX!"

Often depicted on the holonet as a courageous and rugged fighter for truth and justice, young Skywalker is viewed by most as the epitome of manliness. This image is at risk of being shattered, however, by the discovery of his secret stash of Hello Kitty man-panties.

When reached for comment, @Every1HatesAni responded with his trademark cool, collected professionalism- "WTF?!?! THOSE AREN'T MINE!!! It must be that kids....yeah...@Jysella_Horn or something....."

In reply, @Crazyben_kenobi, custodian of this horrible secret, was heard to say " be careful anakin, hate leads to the dark side. The dark side leads to hello kitty."

While shocking to most, this discovery came as no surprise to one of the twittervers' more observant residents. When reached for comment, the vivacious and lovely @Biddygirl, was heard to say "...now that you mention it...I'm not really surprised."

But even for her, acceptance dosen't come easily.

"Why would someone make those underwear? Now I know how @obiwankenobi feels when he bleaches his brain."

Saturday, August 22, 2009

I made a promise to myself to take a story that's been kicking around in my head for the past few years, and turn it into a novel. THIS YEAR. Well, my PC crashed on me a few weeks back, taking everything saved within to that great big matrix in the sky.

Months and months of work, consisting of the vast bulk of my free time, gone just like that.

My first impulse (after I stopped cursing) was to just trash the whole project. I do NOT relish the idea of trying to replicate everything, especially considering how long I sweated over the most trivial turn of phrase. I figured it would be impossible to recapture the little glimmers of awesome that made the prose worth reading.

My second instinct was to just condense the thing into a short story, or novella. After all, some of my notes were backed up on external drives, so the framework of the story still exists.

My friend Jen suggested biting the bullet, and trying to reconstruct what was lost. After all, as she correctly pointed out, re-drafts are often much better than the original.

Right now, I'm on the fence. I WILL complete the project in some form, and I will do so before the year is out. The question is, will it be full-length, or shortened?